What's your community style? - Using social marketing analysis for health marketing campaigns

Intro: As the County of San Diego becomes increasingly diverse, tailoring health promotion programs and messages to the unique needs and characteristics of its community is becoming ever more important. However, identifying these characteristics is often challenging. This project was to assess and develop profiles of San Diego County's communities, using social marketing information, to help identify unique features of each that can be used to improve the health and well-being of the population.

Methods: The census tract-level social marketing segmentation data used were obtained from the ESRI 2010 Tapestry™ Segmentation database. Based on demographics and socioeconomic compositions, each census tract was assigned one of the 65 “segments” and one of the 12 “life modes” identified in the ERSI database. Census tracts were then aggregated to ascribe “segments” and “life modes” to Subregional and Regional areas of the County. Collectively, the information was compiled into a database for public use.

Results: A database was complied to assign communities demographic and socioeconomic based classifications to help health educators and others identify special needs and characteristics that may impact the success of a health promotion program. Information regarding the physical and social environment of each community was outlined.

Conclusion: In the development of health promotion programs, it is important to address the unique needs and f of the priority population. Analysis of social marketing data for can help identify these needs and characteristics of local communities; allowing health programs to better target populations.